P2P drives higher sales

The music industry might fight for tougher laws against file sharing - but could they be doing themselves harm?

A new poll of Internet users in the UK suggests that the music industry has more to lose by chasing music pirates than it could possibly gain.

According to an article over on The Independent, the latest poll - commissioned by Demos and carried out by Ipsos Mori - indicates that those who download music from illegitimate sources such as newsgroups or peer-to-peer networks spend an average of £77 a year on music from legitimate sources, compared to just £33 a year for those who stick to the right side of intellectual property law.

The results of the survey - which questioned 1,000 respondents aged between 16 and 50 - saw an impressive 10 percent of those questioned readily admit to downloading music without permission of the copyright holders. However, it was this group that also spent the most - over double that of Internet users who stick to legitimate sources such as iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store.

The move flies in the face of the industry's concerns regarding file sharing on the Internet - and shines a light on plans to introduce a three-strikes rule to the UK that would see persistent file sharers disconnected from the Internet.

With the results of this survey - which plainly suggest that file sharing actually benefits the creative industries - adding their weight to prior surveys which found that P2P file sharing had little or no effect on sales of music, it could prove difficult for the music industry to continue their campaign of high damage claims and lobbying for tighter controls.

Demos' Peter Bradwell believes that the government's plans - at the behest of the music industry - to introduce a three-strikes rule for file sharers in the UK "will not help prop up an ailing music industry," and claims that "politicians and music companies need to recognise that the nature of music consumption has changed, and consumers are demanding lower prices and easier access" - something that the legitimate download industry is slowly starting to offer.

Do you believe that file sharers could actually increase revenue for the industry, or is every single download a lost sale as the lawsuits so often claim? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

For me its more a case of i'm not going to pay for a download, i'll happily pay for a hard copy., but its good to sample first. Also I wouldnt've bought half the music ive downloaded in the first place

When I did pirate though I definitely spent more. I used to get all sorts of random rubbish which meant I heard a far more diverse range of music, and upon discovering an artist I liked would happily part with cash for CDs when seeing them cheap in HMV. Now I don't listen to too much, I tend to stick to artists I know and only get select tracks. Plus of course things are free on spotify!

The only way that they're gonna stop people from downloading music illegally is by making an app like limewire which is ad supported, and every 3 or so songs you download the ad would change, but of course, the ads would have to take place at the side of the app without any way to annoy the user!.

Originally Posted by NikoBellicThe only way that they're gonna stop people from downloading music illegally is by making an app like limewire which is ad supported, and every 3 or so songs you download the ad would change, but of course, the ads would have to take place at the side of the app without any way to annoy the user!.

Never really bothered with any ligitamate online download service, thats partly due to sh*t marketing by these services, they are only going to make people aware of it by advertising on tele... I never view ads on the web, cuz majority of the ads that you click are some sort of virus, and when going through the news feeds from any web service, if the story is anything to do with music, I'll just ignore it... I only subscribe to news stories to read about Hardware, and maybe a little bit of software (such as DX11 or Firefox 3.6).

if i dont know the band, or know if i like the music, then i'm not gonna spend close to 10 quid to find out. therefore, little bit of theivery later... i like the band, will buy their next CD and i may even go to one of their shows. so which one gets them the more cash?

I certainly bought more when torrenting. Now I mostly use spotify, but the principle is the same.

The government will push through the three strikes rule. They are even publicly ignoring reliable evidence now (the cannabis fiasco) so the rise of the admin class from managing necessary paperwork to being the dictators of society is almost complete.

I just hope a decent party wins at the next elections, who know a little more about tech.

and maybe they will actually do their research on this, only to find that if they went ahead with the tsayo (three strikes and your out) plan, then all that people will do is just find workarounds so that no one will find out that they are downloading content illegally...

in the modern digital age labour just can't keep up, we certainly need a party without so many old pensioners running it!.

Bittech, I think you must be misquoting or misinterpreting Ipsos Mori, 'cos they're a fairly respectable outfit and aren't bloody stupid enough to confuse correlation and causality as hopelessly as the above article has done.

The survey results say that the people who acquire the most music illegally also acquire the most legally. THAT DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSE AND EFFECT! It does not mean that "getting lots of music illegally makes them get lots legally too" as your headline and the article's 'analysis' claim. It just means there's a correlation. Which is simple enough to understand - the biggets music lovers tend to acquire the most music, from both legal and illegal sources.

I pirate but it's usually for specific songs. If I want ONE song from an artist, I don't want to go out and buy an album with 16 songs just so I can listen to that 1. However if there are artists that I love, (Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, AFI, just to name a few) I'll gladly buy their CD's and promote their sales.

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